QUICK NEWS 

• Gloucestershire artificial earth discovered
• Police attend serially offending  Dorset hunt
• Another conviction for serially offending Dorset hunt
• Isle of Wight hunt turns to Drag hunting
• AAF Dorset continues its campaign against Abbotsbury Swannery
• Cheshire hunt uses children as shields
• Multiple badger sett interference
• Multiple police shortfalls and leniency
• Police complaint lodged
• Questionable judgement by police teams organiser
• Questionable judgement by Shropshire Council
• Cornish hunt trespasses again
• Surrey hunt folds
• Wiltshire hunt finally struck off from Companies House
• Two West Country stags killed
• Wiltshire hare killed
• Cub hunting prolific
• Top Somerset vet hosts Meet

TOP STORIES

ARTIFICIAL EARTH
On Thursday, 25th September 2025, Three Counties Hunt Saboteurs conducted a post hunt inspection on the North Cotswold Hunt’s route. They found multiple hoof prints and an artificial earth which had been ‘extensively smashed’: evidence suggesting an attempt to catch a fox. Two entrances were blocked and all the undergrowth was flattened. No blood or signs of a kill were found, but Sabs feared the worst.

POLICE ATTEND BSV
On Saturday 20/09/25, sabs and monitors found it necessary to ask the police to attend the BSV (Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt) after one of their female members was ‘subjected to vile, sexist and aggressive intimidation from one of the riders, who was also on foot at the time’. The police attended quite quickly and the video of the whole incident has been passed onto the police.

GUILTY
On 13/09/25, at Taunton Deane Magistrates Court, Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt supporter Robert Small pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention and to obstruction of the public highway. He was fined £307 and issued with six points on his licence. He was also charged £85 costs, with a surcharge of £125.

HUNT TURNS TO DRAG
The Isle of Wight Foxhounds have informed the Wight Hunt Saboteurs that they are moving over to Drag Hunting.

OTHER STORIES

AAF Dorset continues its campaign against Abbotsbury Swannery. Abbotsbury Swannery is owned by Lady Charlotte Townshend, who rides with the Cattistock Hunt. Owning a Swannery which claims to value wildlife appears at odds with the owners activities. Lady Charlotte permits the hunt to use her land. For more on this, or to express an interest in helping AAF Dorset, please click here.

HUNT ABUSE, POLICE CALLED
On Saturday 11/09/25, the Wynnstay Hunt used children to obstruct filming, and accompanying adults used deplorable accusations.
Welsh Border Wildlife Protectors are not prepared to tolerate this conduct, so the matter is now with the police.

BADGER SETTS
On Saturday 11/09/25 (as above), the Wynnstay Hunt were also filmed digging at an active badger sett. This offence is now, also, with the police.

On 09/01/25, the Cottesmore Hunt were videoed digging in a badger sett. They have escaped prosecution as the CPS said there was not sufficient evidence that the sett was active.

Three Counties Hunt Sabs found a freshly hard blocked badger sett when doing a post Heythrop hunt check on 27/09/25. This has been reported to the police.

Plymouth and West Devon Hunt Sabs have revealed that Devon and Cornwall Police and the National Trust have both, so far, failed to investigate the video footage taken on 15/03/25 of the Dartmoor Hunt tampering with a badger sett and removing nets from over the entrances. Spades and a breaker fork were in the ground nearby. When the nets were removed a fox ran free, and a terrier subsequently exited the sett. Terriermen then removed the number plate from their quad before leaving the area. Attempts to address this failure are ongoing.

POLICE
On 11/09/25, Gary McCann, an employee of the Vale of White Horse Hunt, stole the keys to the Cotswold Sabs‘ vehicle. He admitted such to the police, but Thames Valley Police’s response was a ‘Community Resolution’ (a verbal telling off). Cotswold Sabs are left with the bill.

A light touch, too, for the Sinnington Hunt who were caught on 06/09/25 driving without tax, MOT, or seatbelts, and number plates that didn’t match the horsebox that they were towing. On 20/09/25, they boasted to the East Yorkshire Coast Hunt Sabs that they were given nothing more than a warning for these four motoring offences.

Wiltshire Hunt Sabs report that the statutory time limits for charging two people from the Beaufort Hunt with offences (attacks on hunt saboteurs occurring in November 2024 and January 2025) have been exceeded, and so Avon and Somerset police are taking No Further Action. As A&S Police advised that an Officer had failed to send the case to the CPS, with ‘time barred’ reached, a complaint is now lodged with the Avon and Somerset Professional Standards body.
➡️ Facebook – Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs

POOR JUDGEMENT (POLICE)
Lincolnshire Police’s Rural Crime Officers met with Cambridgeshire, Nottinghamshire, and Leicestershire Forces to deal with hare coursing — at Belvoir Castle.
The owner of Belvoir Castle is fervently in favour of hunting: The Belvoir Hunt is also known as ‘The Duke of Rutland’s Hounds’.

POOR JUDGEMENT (COUNCIL)
Shropshire Council is once again letting the Ludlow Hunt meet in the town centre on Boxing Day. Shropshire Council’s response to AAF’s concerns defended the Ludlow Hunt as a ‘Drag Hunt’. They appear not to know the difference between ‘Trail’ and ‘Drag’ when making their decisions.
➡️ Facebook – Action Against Foxhunting
There is a petition to oppose the Council’s support for the Hunt which can be signed here:
➡️ Protect the Wild petition

TRESPASS ON FE, NT, & SSSI LAND
On 10/09/25, the North Cornwall Hunt again committed trespass on Forestry England land, National Trust land, and, despite warnings from Natural England, over SSSI land, with dogs running amok and rioting through sheep.
This has been reported to each of these authorities, and to the police (crime reference number 50250241053). Enquiries are ongoing.

HUNT OFFICIALLY FOLDS
The HSA reports that the hare hunting pack, the Sandhurst and Aldershot Beagles, has folded. Technically they have become a hunt club which means they still retain their control over their hunt country, but do not have a pack of their own with which to hunt it.

DIG-OUT HUNT FOR FINAL STRIKE-OFF
The Avon Vale Hunt reaches its full end, with an application to be struck off from Companies House, dated 22/07/25.

2 STAG KILLS REPORTED
On Saturday, 13/09/25, the Devon and Somerset Staghounds killed a terrified stag, who was said to have fought hard, was boxed in, and shot.
On Monday, 15/09/25, the Quantock Staghounds again killed a stag after it had been run to exhaustion during a three hour period of chasing and tormenting.
The North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs were present at both meets.
➡️ HSA report – “The Depravity of Stag Hunters”

HARE KILLED
Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs report that on 27/09/25, Beaufort Hunt ‘hounds’ killed a hare. This is not this Hunt’s quarry, but this incident shows that ‘trail hunts’ are incapable or unwilling to operate in a way that does not harm the wildlife that live in our countryside… as their hounds are trained to kill.
➡️ Facebook video – Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs

CUBBING PROLIFIC, NO KILLS REPORTED
There have been no kills reported as the cubbing season continues unabated. Sabs groups across the country have witnessed blatant cubbing, however. One such example, with the Mendip Farmers Hunt, shows coverts surrounded, riders on point holding up, saddle-slapping; plus the huntsman making brrr’ing noises as a fox broke cover.
A horse was also weaponised that day, as kennel huntsman, Thomas Haddock, purposely rode into a Mendip Hunt Sab as they were trying to stop the hounds.
➡️ Facebook reel – Mendip Hunt Sabs
Video is with the Avon & Somerset Police.

VET HOSTS HUNT
The Meet location of the above example was at Smokeacre. This is the home of Charles Thursby-Pelham, MA VetMB CertEP MRCVS — Senior Assessor for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Mr Thursby-Pelham regularly hosts the Mendip Farmers Hunt and has been seen riding out with them, too. Mendip Hunt Sabs intend to contact the RCVS to ask if they believe Mr Thursby-Pelham is a suitable person to pass judgements on other vets, given his association with this Hunt.